TestBash 2013was a one day affordable software testing conference in Brighton on Friday March 22nd 2013.

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Talks

Galumphing is a way to explore a phase space with unknown degrees of freedom by exploiting Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety. I just love saying that sentence. It sounds all technical and complicated. But the idea itself is beautifully simple. I promise you, by the end of my talk, you will know exactly what each word of it means and why it’s important. For you pragmatists, here’s the bottom-line: galumphingis a style of test execution with which we find unanticipated bugs. Unless all your bugs are anticipated ones, you need to galumph.

Running test cases in a lab has value but also diminishing returns as you try to make your lab emulate the complexities of the production environment and your test cases simulate the unpredictable nature of real-world usage. Go where the data is – go to production – and use this data as a new signal for quality assessment alongside your pre-production testing.

I will show you some techniques for testing in production (TiP) ranging from synthetics that resemble your current test cases to big data techniques leveraging the diversity of real production scale, illustrated with examples from Microsoft, Netflix, Google, and more. And if you think the dangers of TiP make it not right for you, I will also cover the risks and their mitigations, so there won’t be any reason you can’t also do it in production.

You don’t have to learn the business domain to do a lot of valuable testing activities, such as exploratory testing. However, if you want to really make sure a feature will solve the business problem as intended, or help your stakeholders get the minimum they need cost-effectively, you should aim to become an expert in your company’s business domain.

I will share some of the ways my teams and I have been successful in learning about businesses and customers, and how you can apply that knowledge to deliver solutions that exceed both of their expectations. Participants are invited to share their own experiences in becoming business experts and how that helped them, or perhaps held them back.

IT is often considered as a technical science or engineering. Traditionally testers are techies who focus on analysing requirements and turning them into a series of test cases. Some also analyse product risks and write (master) test plans. The focus is often on technical and analytical skills. But excellent testing requires a lot more! Testing is also about attitude, skills, communication, behaviour, collaboration and systems thinking.This talk gives insight into why testing is a social science.

It gives some examples of what a tester can take away from social sciences. For example anthropology teaches us about how people live and interact. Didacticism helps us to acquire or modify knowledge, behaviours and skills. Sociology teaches us empirical investigation and critical analysis while providing insight into human social activity. Psychology is the study of the mind and helps testers to understand individuals and groups. What is the influence of social sciences in testing? What can we learn from them? Let me share my experiences with you in the ‘What Testers can Learn from Social Sciences’ talk.

Agile development teams place automated tests at the centre of their regression testing strategy, but how many different types of automation does a team need to feel confident that changing one area of a system has not negatively affected another?

During this presentation I will explain two distinctly different approaches to test automation that were used simultaneously on the same project. One you may be familiar with; it was BDD. The other may be less familiar; a semi-automated piece of testing built around the principle of a “gold build”. As part of explaining each approach I will describe their cost to implement, the types of bugs they typically detected and, most importantly, their ability to complement each other rather than conflict.

Effective test teams are the result of careful hiring, people development and problem deflection. Learn how to eliminate the management waste to create a test team that is successful in a lean development environment.

Application Security is a hot topic and increasingly software testers are being asked to carry out “security tests”; sometimes this is in addition to external security tests but often instead of. Despite the widespread availability of resources on security testing, much of it focuses on techniques so it can be difficult for testers to know where to start and what is important to their context.

Building a Threat Model can help testers formulate a more context driven approach to security testing and help frame these tests by linking your application/assets to possible threats and vulnerabilities, to the tests you are carrying out (or not) and the techniques needed to implement them.

This session will provide an interactive introduction to Threat Modelling and how it can be used to formulate a more context driven approach to security testing.

What motivates you to work and improve as a tester? Why do the testers in your team work well together? Or why don’t they? Have you ever wondered what motivates professional testers?

Maslow’s Theory of Needs seeks to describe the psychology of humans by way of a hierarchical model. From physiological needs up to self-actualization, it helps explain what motivates us and how we express that motivation. A Testers Hierarchy of Needs does the same for software testers.

If you manage testers and have a keen interest in ensuring that your team are motivated and work well together, or if you are a tester wondering what is needed to make your team great, then come along and discover more. I will present a framework which helps explain tester psychology, how internal and external factors can affect their motivations, and steps that can be taken to better motivate yourself and your team.

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About The Ministry of Testing

The Ministry of Testing aims to change and lead within the software testing world. We are doing this through a strong focus on learning, collaboration and resources. You are part of the story too, we hope you can join us along the way.

We are headed up by Rosie Sherry and are UK based (with a global reach, of course!)